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The Eyes Have It

I must confess: My most memorable climbing experiences - a hanging bivy on the N.A. Wall, topping out on the Salathé with Layton Kor, seeing birds kite against the sky during an early free attempt of the Naked Edge, and struggling to make a clip on Separate Reality - are fiction. They never happened to me; rather, these indelible moments appear in photographs from the likes of Tom Frost, Galen Rowell, George Meyers and, more recently, Greg Epperson, Tim Kemple, Keith Ladzinski and David Clifford. It's these guys, dedicated photographers and climbers themselves, who have been tasked with documenting our high-test sport, one that grips you like a strait jacket and makes you yell, No, Nurse Ratched, I'm not insane!

In the following pages, we present a cache of new works from budding (or already there) shooters who attended Rock and Ice's third annual photo camp. This summer, we climbed, ate barbecued pork ribs, and prowled a little-known area dubbed The Narrows, just south of our headquarters in Carbondale, Colorado, to capture the climbing lifestyle on digital film. Great fun, but no surprises there. The shocker came later when the students presented their top photos of the day at our nightly round-table critique. It was then that their gob-smacking images caused our jaws to gape. Dig in! (For even more images from the camp, visit www.rockandice.com/photocamp)

- Duane Raleigh

attention ground control // Manasseh Franklin, a graduate of the Rock and Ice internship program, fearlessly whips off of Pump-a-lama (5.11b) in the stony hallway known as The Gash. (Facing page, top right.) Photo by andrew bisharat Nikon D3, F/10, 1/60th second, ISO 800, 17mm lens.

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green movement // lauren lee crimps (upper right) Red Faction (5.13a). You may know the photographer Andrew Bisharat as the voice of TNB. What you may not know is that last year he issued an April Fool's press release that touted the benefits of the newly invented "Putty Nutz," malleable dough-like nuts that you formed into the placement, but which hardened on impact. His joke fooled climbers worldwide who rushed to place orders - even the venerable Popular Science called to learn more about the amazing technology. Photo by andrew bisharat Nikon D3, F/2.8, 1/500th second, ISO 800, 200mm lens.

child's play // david clifford's 1-year-old daughter, Sasha, paying rapt attention to the day's lessons. As Clifford - who also has a twin son, Miles - says, better start young if you want to succeed. Photo by andrew bisharat Nikon D3, F/1.4 ISO 400, 50mm lens.

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